Table tennis club format

Flathitter said:

What is the best format to run a table tennis club? Round robin seems to burn people out, and is a lot of work from my experinece.

I have thought about winner stays up, but first, a match against a league opponent (best of 5) to determine rankings. Eventually, every 8 weeks or so, the no. 1 ranked player would get a match for the league championship.

Or possibly a giant blind draw double elim tourney every week? Please, any and all suggestions appreciated!

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Would this be a club where there is no "local league"?

How many people would you expect to come down?

I would avoid "winner stays on" - It's not inclusive to the people who are improving.

Assuming there is no local league (as my understanding is there isn't in most of the US), could you not set up an "in club" league?

People get into teams of 2 or 3, and you have a league structure where each team plays the others over the course of a number of weeks (depending on how many people you have).

If it's teams of 3, I'd recommend 9 singles of best of 5 (where everyone plays everyone), and a doubles if you want..... Although I know the Americans don't like draws in sports! 😂

If it's teams of 2, I'd go for 4 singles of best of 7, with the option of the doubles match.

Generally speaking, that would last between 2 and 3 hours.

Lastly, if it's just a club where people come to for fun, I'd just let them get on with it and play who they want (without a set format).